combien
\kɔ̃.bjɛ̃\
The verdict
“combien” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #866 in French word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #866
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 15
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - En quelle quantité, en quel nombre. Note d’usage : Utilisé avec de, en.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | combien |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \kɔ̃.bjɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #866 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “combien” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for combien is 7 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kɔ̃.bjɛ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #866 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for combien, with forms such as "ccombien", "cmobien", and "cobmien". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 15 confusable-pair relationships, "comble", "corbin", "combler", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is combien, spelled C-O-M-B-I-E-N.
Definition
- 1En quelle quantité, en quel nombre. Note d’usage : Utilisé avec de, en.
- 2Quelle quantité, quel nombre.
- 3Quel prix.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccombien,cmobien,cobmien,combbien,combein,combienn,combine,comiben,commbien,ocmbien
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of combien - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "combien"?
What does "combien" mean?
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Using “combien”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-O-M-B-I-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kɔ̃.bjɛ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “comble” - see the side-by-side comparison. combien vs comble
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.